Y o u r d i g i ta l W ORK F LO W

The key steps, from pressing the shutter to printing the photo

START

SHOOT IN RAW

To get the best out of your camera, and to give yourself more of a safety net for exposure, set your camera to shoot in raw format, or raw and JPEG at the same time.

DOWNLOAD TO YOUR PC

Get yourself a memory card reader for convenience when downloading cards. Some software, like Lightroom, can be set up to detect cards and begin downloading for you.

BACK UP

Computer hard disk drives are delicate and can fail at any time, so always store a back-up of your images on an external hard drive. It’s a small extra outlay of time and money in exchange for peace of mind – and one day it might save your photos.

OPEN LIGHT ROOM/ AC R

You’ll need raw processing software to enhance your images – Lightroom or Photoshop are ideal, or alternatively use the bundled raw software that came with your camera.

SORT THE SET

A few minutes spent organising, rating and keywording your images at the very start of the editing workflow will make it easier to find the set later. Over time you could take thousands of images, so stay organised right from the start.

ADJUST the EXPOSURE

Choose an image to work on from the set, then take it into your photo editor. Begin by tweaking the exposure to lighten or darken the image.

FIX WHITE BALANCE

Adjust white balance settings to correct any colour casts. One of the big advantages to shooting in raw is you can change the white balance after the fact with no quality loss.

BOOST CONTRAST AND CLARITY

Raw files typically look a little flat at first, as manufacturers assume you will enhance them manually. A boost in contrast or increased clarity will often make for a punchier image.

BLACK& WHITE OR COLOUR?

Experiment with a black-and-white conversion if you think the image may benefit from removing the colour. If you choose colour, adjust the saturation and

vibrance to boost weak hues.

LENS CORRECTION

If necessary, consider using lens correction tools to fix problems, like barrel distortion in wideangle scenes or chromatic aberration – coloured fringes

along high-contrast edges.

SAVE AS

Raw processing is by nature non-destructive, as the original image is always preserved. So to apply any changes made, save it in a different common image format like JPEG or TIFF.

BOOKS, PRINTS AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Too many images end up languishing on hard drives after you’ve gone through them. Take pride in your artwork and present it to the world by making prints or photo books, and by sharing your favourites on social media or websites.

FINISH